This invention relates to beverage servers or dispensers, particularly coffee servers used in a commercial or food service environment.
Beverage dispensers, such as coffee servers, are well known in the commercial food service industry. The servers of the prior art generally include a refillable tank for holding coffee or other beverage, a heating element for keeping the beverage at a desired temperature, a valve or faucet located at the bottom of the tank for selectively dispensing the coffee, and a sight glass or tube mounted on the exterior of the tank and in fluid communication with the interior of the server for determining the level of coffee in the server.
The sight glass or tube used in the prior art, while simple in construction and operation, is not without some disadvantages. The sight tube is arranged so that it is in fluid communication with the beverage in the tank, and is generally placed vertically on the front of the server extending upward from the faucet used to dispense the coffee. Because the sight glass extends from the faucet, the coffee drawn by the user is a blend of coffee from the sight tube and the tank. Because the sight tube is located outside of the body of the server and hence the tank, the sight tube is not insulated. As a result, the coffee dispensed from the sight tube may be at a temperature lower than the rest of the tank, and hence lower than a coffee drinker might like. The sight tube can also become stained from contact with the coffee, and further coated by oils and other residue present in the coffee. This may lead to undesired tastes being imparted to the coffee or an undesirable cosmetic appearance on the sight gauge. The stains and residues can be cleaned, however this requires complete disassembly of the coffee urn and sight tube, which results in added expense and down time.
To avoid these and other problems, it is desirable to eliminate the sight tube, yet still retain the capability of readily displaying the level of coffee in the server to the user or food service personnel monitoring the server. To address these problems, the invention herein describes a capacitance probe placed within the tank, whereby the level of coffee is detected by the change in capacitance sensed by the probe. The electronic signal generated by the probe can then be used to drive a display, such as an analog level meter, or a digital display, thereby allowing food service personnel to monitor the level of coffee or other beverage in the server.
Additional features and embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of drawings.
The exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the disclosure that is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner.